Tilva Roš
Short summary
Bor, Serbia, was once the largest copper mine in Europe, now it is just the biggest hole.
Best friends, Toda and Stefan spend their first summer after high school skating in the
abandoned mine and making ''Jackass-like'' videos. When Dunja, a friend who has
returned from France for her summer holidays, arrives on the scene, the boys vie for her
attention in ways that tear at the fabric of their relationship. Straining their friendship
further, Stefan will be going to University in Belgrade in the fall while Toda professes he
wouldn't go to University, even if he had the money. In the meantime, Union protests
in town, which started small, gain momentum and the boys are thrust back together
under a common cause.
Director’s note
I was lucky to get my hands on a copy of home made, one hour long “jackass-like” film
which was made by these guys themselves. I was impressed by a huge amount of
unarticulated energy which erupted from them, and also by a complete lack of interest
in actual social struggle going on around them. I remembered my own attitude from 10
years earlier, when I also lived in that same small town, and realized that it wasn't much
different from theirs – it was all about FUN. I remembered how everything was much
simpler, social rights, health insurance, politics... those were all terms from some other,
borring dimension. So I wanted TILVA ROŠ to be about that – waking the counscience
you don't want to wake, finding out about injustices you don't care about, assuming
social roles when you don't want to participate, and about helpless strugle to save that
carefree teenage world from any changes.
Visual style & influences
Since I was born and raised in Bor, I had this mixed feeling towards the place, because
Bor is in Serbia a symbol of a destroyed industry. It is partly fair to say so, but I never
pictured it in my head like some East European post-industrial wasteland. I never felt as
I lived in some ugly sinkhole ghost town, on contrairy, I always felt as it was the most
beautiful place on earth. And because of the mine tailings that surround the town it
always reminded me of Arizona desert. It's not new to search for the beauty where
people usually don't look for it, so I had a very clear refference in the legendary
american photographer William Eggleston's work. His photos of US mid-west
wastelands look as the most beautiful memory a person could have. While looking at
them I had the exact same feeling as when watching some landscape back home. Films
like Gummo, My own private Idaho, Thumbsucker were all kind of visual and emotional
refferences of what kind of feeling I wanted to make.
Cast
Marko Todorović – Toda and Stefan Đorđević are real guys, as well as their friends from
the Skate Team Kolos. To me, that was the whole point of the film, to make it with them
playing characters based on themselves. Their lives somehow differ from the lives of the
characters in the film but these characteres are heavily based on the real guys. The
character of Dunja played by Dunja Kovačević, the art student from Novi Sad, is the only
fictional member of the group. She was introduced to the group a week before the start
of the production. The only roles played by the real actors are Toda's and Stefan's
parents and the karaoke show presenter.
Crap - Pain is Empty
Crap - Pain is Empty is a 1 hour long home-made documentary created by Stefan, Toda
and their skate group in 2005-2006. It is influenced by TV-shows like Jackass and Dirty
Sanchez. They were still in high school while recording it. Stefan and Toda did almost all
stunts with a small contribution of their friends. Stefan edited the film and since then
they distributed it for free via DVDs and Rapidshare and promoted it on YouTube.
Skate team "Kolos"
Skate team "Kolos" is a skate group created in June 2005. by Stefan Đorđević, Marko
Todorović and Marko Milenković as its only members. In next couple of years they
spread their interest in skateboarding to younger kids and the team grew rapidly. In
2005. there were only few skaters in Bor but up until 2010. the number grew to around
30. Almost all of them appear in Tilva Roš, and the team is often referenced in the film.
Most of them were underage during the production. Together with Skate Team Zglob
from Negotin and Shorty, graffiti artist from Zaječar, they form KZS (Kolos Zglob
Shorty), a kind of eastern Serbian skate alliance numbering more than 50 skaters. In late
2009. skate team Kolos registered NGO in order to gather funds needed for creating a
skate park in Bor.
Title
The title Tilva Roš is actually the name of the area around Bor where the first geological
explorations of copper ore were done in the late 19th century. In Vlachian it means The
Red Hill. The hill looked red because if was full of copper ore. This is mentioned in the
first scene of the film.
Nikola Ležaić’s bio
Nikola Ležaić is born on 6th of august 1981. in Bor, Serbia where he finished high school.
He studied film directing at the Faculty of dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Before that he was
a co-founder of a comic group named SMOG, and a co-founder of the first literary
movement of the XXI century named METASYNCHRISM. Tilva Rosh is his feature debut.
Director’s Filmography
Rain Smoke Man Woman 12' (2005)
Boxer Goes to Heaven 15' (2007) (BELGRADE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - AWARD FOR BEST
FICTION SHORT)
The Strongest 15' (2007)
Nylon-dressed Ground 25' (2008) (MONTPELLIER FILM FESTIVAL)
Cast
Marko Todorović
Stefan Đorđević
Dunja Kovačević
Marko Milenković
Nenad Stanisavljević
Nenad Ivanović
Filip Maksimović
Miloš Petrović
Nenad Miladinović
Vlatko Ristov
Nikola Milovanović
Boško Đorđević
Aleksandar Pavlović
Milan Radosavljević
Radoje Čupić
Dragana Mrkić
Ljubomir Todorović
Nenad Pećinar
Dragan Stojmenović
Raca Rukavina
written, edited & directed by
Nikola Ležaić
producers
Uroš Tomić
Mina Đukić
Nikola Ležaić
co-producer
Dragan Đurković
director of photography
Miloš Jaćimović
sound recording & editing
Danijel Daka Milošević
art director
Nikola Berček
costume design
Biljana Grgur
FILM HOUSE KISELO DETE
VISION TEAM
2010